Elections 2015: Changing Continuity

Heralding the 2015 elections, “change” and “continuity” are two words that gained currency in Nigeria. In a never-before used manner, the major opposition party, All Progressives Congress, fondly touted “change” while the ruling Peoples Democratic Party settled for “continuity” and played the card with unbridled exorbitance.

In trying to woo the electorates, our politicians upstaged the most rigorous and vigorous campaigns in our political history. Several gimmicks were panned, generic and bland simplistic statements such as “’if you vote us, we will deliver the dividends of democracy’ and ‘we will move the nation forward, if elected’” were traded by the principal contenders. Media stunts – smear campaigns, hate and calumny preaching, personality attacks – ditto. But as it is fondly said in this part of God’s real estate; nothing spoil.

We were made to believe that if “continuity” coasts to victory, it will amount to maintaining the status quo – a Nigeria bereft of healthcare, stable electricity, good roads, sound education and infrastructure, but if “change” carries the day, it will be tantamount to the termination of a 16-year misrule, it will no longer be the continuation of a ruinous order that not only serves as an enabler for a few to live off of the misery of the larger populace, but empowers a few to subject the populace to conditions that make gross mockery of the humanity in them; conditions that warrant morose resignation.

Perhaps, due to the apparition of the postelection violence we witnessed some four years ago, or the war threats levied on us and our dear, dear Nigeria, by the incumbent’s political hirelings – Asari Dokubo and co., or maybe the prophecy of our disintegration, the rife disbelief that the centre will hold and geographical shards like the Republic of Biafra, Oduduwa Kingdom, Arewa Caliphate, and the Sovereign Oil States of the Niger Delta will emerge after the elections, the underbelly of the average Nigerian politician was exposed and in a never before seen manner, the electorates seemed to be in the know. Albeit belated, they came to the realization that with their enfranchisement, which has been before now underutilized, they can successfully wage war against the dysfunctions and oppressions that have being our sorry fate. And with the new-found potency in the voters card, a common resolve to get things right this time was reached.

Untypically, we saw them troop out en masse, as one big, united family. The sick and disabled weren’t left out. We saw them in droves, with their guide canes, on crutches, wheelchairs, their sick raiment, standing tall amongst them was a particular man accompanied to the polling booth by his caregivers, nurses. They queued in the rain and shine, determined to scale any hurdle regardless of how high and surmount mountains no matter how tall. They provided their own power – supporting the process with their generator sets and lamps – when it got dusky. They patiently waited for their votes to be counted and announced right before them, at their respective polling units. Some even had to miss church, in areas where the elections were extended.

After the elections were over, they didn’t fold up and go into snooze mode. They returned to their homes, reached for their calculators, rolled up their sleeves and stayed glued to their television sets all through the national collation process. For those few days, they became miniature–Pythagorases, crunching numbers as they were being reeled out by the respective state returning officers and cross examined, in a manner that made our vice-chancellors look like undergrad students defending their final year thesis, by the chairman of our Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega.

From the foregoing, one thing is unmistakable: Nigerian electorates have jolted out of a lazy rut. They are now more politically educated. They’ve kissed wishy-washy jejuneness adieus. They seem ready and committed to making more informed choices than ever before. They’re more demanding, more knowledgeable, more voting-conscious, and far less loyal to any “oga at the top” – Nigeria’s street lingo for big politicians. They are tired of accepting less-than-acceptable leadership.

From this weighty backdrop, one is safe in assuming a termination of President Jonathan’s “alleged” wobbling and fumbling, supposing his reelection bid succeeded. It couldn’t have continued considering the political consciousness and enlightenment permeated from the quarters of the Nigerian electorate. This seemingly refreshed sentience would have naturally brought everything but continuity. And hence it wouldn’t have been business as usual, at least to secure victory for whoever his party files on expiration of his second term, it would have been a concurrent victory for change and continuity.

“The most important contest that Africa’s most populous nation, and biggest economy, has held since its return to civilian rule in 1999,” as succinctly put by The Economist, is over. The die is cast and like in every other contest, a winner has emerged. Yes. The opposition party won and the election, which was widely adjudged free, fair, and historic, has been inferred a victory for change. But that conclusion lacks “perfect” congruency with our reality.

Regardless of the outcome, Nigeria’s 2015 presidential polls would have simultaneously brought change and continuity. It would have inherently ushered in a government that will fervently serve the people. The two principal contenders – Gen. Muhammad Buhari (retd) and president Goodluck Jonathan – aren’t new chums. The alternate lot falls on them as former head of state and the later, our current president. Come May 29, either of them will have simply continued from wherever they left off – 1985 or 2015, as the case may be.

No. The result of the March 28 elections wasn’t solely a victory for change. It wasn’t exclusively a lose for continuity, either. With the act of sportsmanship displayed by the outgoing president, an act somewhat alien to our democratic experiment, and the unprecedented show of zest and commitment on the path of the electorates, it obviously isn’t a victory for any one party, tribe, region or religion. It is a victory for change, continuity, our democracy, and above all, each and every one of us.

Joel Pereyi is a Lagos-based freelance writer.

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Articles by Joel Pereyi